South East Asia - Epilogue

Sitting here in a fabulous coffee shop I just stumbled upon above the market, I couldn't leave the continent without mentioning the awesome hike I went on in thr mountains over the last couple of days. Great group, fantastic guide Max who was basically the Thai equivalent of Ray Mears and was constantly foraging, climbing trees and finding us jungle food to eat. He was also a dab hand with his 15 inch machete and when he was not rummaging around finding jungle food he was crafting items out of delicately sliced bamboo.

Stayed the night in a wonderful location (will post photos later!) and drank a couple too many Chang beers with the great group. Lovely group of intrepid Norwegians, a dashing and sophisticated Dutch gentleman called Robbie and a fun trio of American students who were embarking on the experience of a lifetime - happy travels Shea, Ally and Nate hope you have a great time! I won't mention the grumpy German couple but they did provide a talking point for the rest of us!

Cannot sign off without reflecting on the general fantasticness of all the people here, yes it is cliche but they truly are a delight and I will certainly miss them and their wonderful smiles...until next time at least!

Lots of airport time and flying time today, but won't be too long now and will be in New Zealand and to say I am excited would be an understatement! Bring it on! :-) Tom

Chaing Mai saves the day and farewell SE Asia!

Well it is certainly fair to say that for a variety of reasons the last leg of the trip was probably the lowlight of the trip so far (see last blog!). It had even crossed minds to throw in the towel and escape this continent completely to the safer climes of New Zealand a little early. It was going to require a special, unique and very very nice place to, ahem, 'save the day' as it were.

Well Thailand has such a place and it is called Chaing Mai...and thank Buddha we decided to push on and get up to this lovely city. Immediately as you get out of the taxi from the airport you are enveloped in a sense of calm and tranquility which has not been the norm for us now since pretty much the time we arrived in Asia (with a few notable exceptions of course which have been talked about previously). Make no mistake this is a thriving, bustling and busy city with a vibrant university community and lots of visitors from home and abroad. It is however a gentle, nicely paced and wholly peaceful place too. The temples here are fabulous, decadent and beautiful and there is a healthy monk population here which is always a nice sight in this part of the world.

After checking in at our basic but very nice Jonadda guesthouse (with a fabulously helpful proprietress) we split up a bit during the day times and make the most of this area. Jaryn went on a day hike out in the mountains which sounded good. I decided to try and improve my culinary skills and went on a Thai food cooking course in a farm somewhere about 45 min drive from the city. Really nice day and I quite impressed myself - although all efforts were under a high degree of instruction!

No big surprises on what we decided to do as today's activity...yes you guessed it we hired motorbikes again and went for a drive through the Maesa Valley which was great with a very nice Dutch couple, Arjan and Emma, that I met on the cooking course. We saw waterfalls, elephants, hilltop rice fields, temples, mountains and the highlight of the day (particularly for JB) was the pick your own strawberry farm. Very delicious they were too!

Spirits rejuvenated, tomorrow we part company for a week with Jaryn heading south and I will be going on a two day hill trek here before flying to Auckland on Sunday for the start of the next big phase of our trip...mega excited will be good to do some proper walking and burn off some of this Asian podge which comes from not really doing any proper exercise...NZ we are counting on you to be the outdoor pursuits heaven we all hear about :). 

Would like to make a quick shout out to some of the fantastic people we have met during our time in Asia all of whom have made the last few weeks very memorable, love you all - Jeff, Tony, Sha, Houng, Don, Paula, the staff at Madame Moon, Lan Ha fisherman, Trung Hoa family, Tilmann, Nils and Joche, Stephi, Hippy girl and French guy, Chien Bach, Tristan, Dani, Arline, Svenja, Anthony, Eloise, Alix, Tin Tin, Mr Hung, Natrang Tour guy, Disco Taxi driver, Vietnamese Tom Jones guy, Smiley man on the bamboo boat, super organised lady in Vinh along, Chace, the Three Norwegians, the canine Chairman Mao, the Cambodian-Aussie family, the guy from Sheffield and girl from Leeds Uni, camp airport guy, Jonadda proprietress, Arjan and Emma and all of the kids in Vietnam who waved and gave us high fives on the bikes - you are all great! Roll on New Zealand but thank you SE Asia...next blog in a week or so. :)

A rough few days in Sihanoukville and escaping Cambodia

Well, it's been kind of a funny week really. After the highlight of Angkor Wat, things kind of went from bad to worse in Cambodia for us. We reckon the decision to have some 'fresh' spring rolls in Siam Reap eventually caught up with both of us over the last few days. This was compounded with the side effects of the Malarone which we had started taking for this section of Cambodia. It is fair to say that I was experiencing some very peculiar side effects of the anti-malarial drug including dizziness, a slight fever and weirdly (although this was stated in the leaflet as "feeling low") this kind of impending sense of dread, doom and destruction. Have to admit it kind of puts a bit of a dampener on things when you are sat under a palm tree on the beach, looking at the sun setting and drinking out of an iced coconut - but all you can think about is how terrible everything is!

This was further compounded by me actually caching a proper flu-like bug (one of the other effects of Malarone is it reduces your white blood cell count) and also having some pretty nasty bout of food poisoning as well (did mention that Malarone also acts as an antibiotic so plays with your digestive system too??!!). Jaryn also caught a stinker of a stomach bug as well just before me so it fair to say we spent as much time sitting on, or looking into, our hotel room toilet over the last 4-5 days as we did exploring Sihanoukville. Luckily it was a fairly nice hotel.

When we did get out into the town and it's surrounding beaches, which on paper tick all the boxes of being up there with the worlds best, I am sad to say that they were a bit of a disappointment. Whilst the sea was indeed a turquoise blue (and certainly warm) and the sands were indeed white and soft, this was all lost below piles of rubbish and junk. There were a few spots were you could find some pristine beaches, and the outlying islands are the places to find these, but the beaches on the mainland it has to be said leave a lot to be desired. It is also a slightly sad place as well, with a ridiculous amount of Russian oligarchs with their trophy wives and ridiculously massive beer bellies (bigger belly = bigger fortune, or so we presumed) parading around with their jet ski's and flashy cars contrasting with the local people who are clearly scratching out an existence on the poverty line. It is a real shame and hopefully something that will improve in the future, as the beaches have the potential to be world class and create jobs for local people.

Sadly it seems Cambodia is still too corrupt and inequitable for the government to provide a useful refuse collection and management service for these parts of the country (let alone any of the other important key services it's population needs). The governing party here is called the 'People's Party" led by a leader who has been in power for 23 years and refuses to give it up until he retires. I only hope that is sooner rather than later for the people of Cambodia who come across as a spirited, hard working and very open and friendly bunch. One of the most interesting encounters was with a fellow tourist on a boat trip who was a Cambodian who fled to Australia in the late 70's during the Khmer Rouge era and his story was very humbling. His kids with their broad Aussie accents were a delight as well!

However thanks to rubbish, illness and Malarone we both had a bit of a dim view of the place and when we were just about well enough to escape then we took the first chance we could to get away. This leg of the journey was actually smooth, straightforward and kind of went like clockwork (pretty sure the Vietnamese would not let you leave so easily without a little farewell scam or two??!!).

So we didn't really see as much of the 'real' Cambodia as we would have liked, apart from looking out from the side of a tuk tuk or the bus as we left towards the airport. Jaryn vowed he would never come back, me I am not so sure - but certainly not in a hurry! I do however wish them all the best and hope the nation gets the chance to grow and flourish like some of their neighbours and the potentially stunning coastline the have can bring them the potential it deserves. I have attached a couple of photos that give you an idea of its scope anyway...will upload more in the future of the less celubrious aspects! iPad still not liking my camera but working to resolve this!

A pleasant couple of flights and a dashing shuttle connection between Bangkok's airports followed (all that I will see of this sprawling city for now) sees us heading to Chaing Mai in Thailand and hopefully a much more relaxed, illness free and pleasant time...well that's the plan...!

The Temples of Angkor, the Modern Monk and a ridiculous journey through Cambodia

All of the superlatives used to describe Angkor Wat and the temples of Angkor are correct, it is a fascinating, beautiful and overwhelming sight. There are hundreds of temples, each with thousands of intricate carvings, statues and sculptures carved out of sandstone. The whole area is indeed worthy of being one of the wonders of the world. The largest temple, Angkor Wat, is without doubt an impressive sight. It is monolithic in scale, apparently it took 38 years to construct using 1 million people. That must have been quite a building site!

Probably my favourite temple as the Bayou temple with many intricate faces looking outwards and the mighty walled city of Angkor Thom is equally impressive and must have been something else when it was one of the largest cities in the world in its heyday. The huge gates with massive faces and figures must have been an awe inspiring and intimidating sight. I would love to have posted more photos but the iPad has decided it doesn't like my camera now (probably because it is not manufactured by Apple!) so it only lets me upload a few and not my favourites. I hope you get a feel for the place anyway.

Unfortunately, and perhaps inevitably, the area is absolutely overrun with tourists and all the hullabaloo that comes with the sheer number of visitors. I hope I can be forgiven for using a little artistic licence with some of these photos. The decision to hire mountain bikes was however a great idea and did allow more detailed viewing of some of the 'smaller' temples (each of which would in their own right be a national monument in any other place) where there were less crowds and serenity could be found. The cycle around the incredible walls around Angkor Thom were deserted and the only people up there were locals collecting wood for their clay stoves. The other distinct feature of the area is the number of orphaned or poor children and the small bands set up by the victims of landmines playing traditional Khmer music. Again a solemn reminder of this areas recent and current problems with poverty and oppression. More on this maybe later.

We also had a tuk tuk tour to some of the more far flung temples, which was great, but our tuk tuk driver had a one track mind and seemed more concerned about acting as some kind of pimp rather than acting as a tour guide "you want some boom boom tonight" (accompanied with a most curious gesture) was greeted with a muted "no we are here to see some temples" response from the both of us. He eventually got the hint and the rest of the afternoon was fairly quiet. We decided not to give him a tip!

It is also worth making a note of the observations of many a 'modern monk' equipped with smartphones, iPads, digital cameras and was funny to watch them gleefully take selfies of themselves with the various temples in the background. One can only assume these monks are still in training and the last thing you give up these days is gadetry! I guess to be fair if you are a Buddhist monk travelling here from far away then you would want to record the moment for posterity, and who can hold it against them!

An early start this morning saw us getting picked up 'Cambodian style' in a totally rammed mini van to get on a boat to Phnom Phenh. This seemed like a nice idea, who wouldn't want to go on a nice 6 hour boat journey?! Sadly we read the section the lonely planet saying it was best avoided after we booked the tickets. A rather precarious journey perched atop a very fast moving tin can ensued (we only left 2 hours late) in the full glare of the sun with only a bunch of sunburnt Russians, some middle aged hippy types and the cast of Beverley Hills 90210 for company. The guy running up and down the narrow gangway along the side of the boat selling beers was a light relief tho. It wasn't actually all that bad and the journey through the riverside villages was great with lots of gleeful kids waving at us as we sped by and nearly toppled them out of their boats. This is most certainly a unique and fascinating landscape. It seems most of the rural population of Cambodia lives a fine line between sustistance living and poverty - will need a few more days here to work out which side of the line.

The only reason I say the boat trip was not that bad is because it was significantly better than the bus journey to Sihanoukville that followed. Whilst the bus itself was significantly more comfortable than a rolling metal bulkhead; the puking passenger opposite, arguing elderly couple, nutty woman in front and the ridiculous amount of guys rammed into the stairwell having a right laugh in the company of the worlds loudest man has kind of taken the sheen off it. Plus the rush hour traffic meant we arrived about 3 hours late and a late night check in on the best hotel we could find in the area was greeted with a bunch of drunk Russians causing chaos for the hotel staff, what a delight! 

A constant reminder of the trials and tribulations of this part of the world is always on the local papers and television screens with huge protests in Thailand. There is an eqaully strong sense of misgiving amongst the working class here in Cambodia seeking a higher minimum wage and all sorts of scandal and corruption with their Government starting to come to a head with the populous. I have a feeling the travel issues we have experienced so far are just a taster of what we may have to come...we shall see!

Saigon, farewell Vietnam and hello Cambodia

Saigon is a much more worldly city than the Vietnam capital of Hanoi. It's vibrant and exciting, but maybe lacks the honesty of Hanoi. I think people tend to fall into one camp or the other, I think I preferred the more rustic charms of Hanoi but one thing for sure is that Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) certainly has a more interesting night life. Staying in a charming little hotel we had an An afternoon and evening to explore. Must say I was getting a bit bored of towns and cities but it's hard not to like the pop-up bars that seem to be set up outside shops on the main drag. Each with chairs or benches facing the street to provide you with free people watching entertainment in exchange for buying a beer - a lovely way to spend an evening. Certainly it did not disappoint, we a pleasant mix of drunken westerner watching nicely tempered with Vietnamese getting on with their lives (some also drunk!). There was certainly a lot more harmony here between the tourists and locals than some popular drinking locations you find in some European cities.

During the day we also made a visit to the War Remnants museum, which is pretty much an essential stop here. It is highly charged post-war propaganda (it was presumably built not long after the end of the war) so has an uncomfortable anti-US stance. It is however brutal, hard-hitting and very moving and a reminder of the savage nature of war and a reminder of this countries battle worn history. The war journalist photographic exhibition is stunning.

The next morning we flew to Siem Reap, the town that hosts Angkor Wat. We were grateful for the easy flight with Cambodia Angkor Airlines which was certainly a better option than the 10+ hour bus journey with the uncertainties of road border crossings.

We arrived and had enough time to squeeze in a few 'warm up' temples and go on a boat trip to visit a fascinating and wonderful floating village (all the houses are on stilts) and then on to watch the sunset across the massive Tonle Sap lake which is one of the largest lakes in Asia. Our tuk tuk driver had a puncture on the way back at the end of a dirt road. This at home would have resulted in lots of panic, inability to use the spare tyre kit in the car, issues which phone signal and a lengthy wait for the AA as they tried to find your location. Here, a quick dash to a local shack results in finding a man with a well stocked car repair kit and 3 generations of a family working on the tyre tube which is fixed in about 15 minutes and we are on our way. 

The Cambodians we have met so far have all been a delight. They seem perhaps a little more shy than their Vietnamese brothers and sisters but a wave and a smile will be responded to with wonderfully happy smiles in return. Siem Reap is a very curious city. MUCH calmer and more relaxed than anywhere we came across in Vietnam, but also full of massive hotels, resorts and spas to service the wealthy tourists. It kind of has a Disneyland feel to it on one part of the city (this is certainly not the 'real Cambodia'!). We are staying in a nice guesthouse with palm trees and sun loungers in the more Cambodian side of town and hopefully we will be able to explore this part of town more over the next couple of days. 

Anyway, that's enough blogging time to go and see some temples...!!

Central Vietnam and the Mekong Delta

It's kind of hard to keep up with what has been going on the last few days. It has certainly given us a taste of the good, the bad and the ugly of the Vietnamese public transport system. The last time we left you we got up at 5am to get on possibly Vietnam's bumpiest bus journey to the city of Danang. We had joked the night before that it was going to be some kind of party bus, but alas it was definitely not very party and arriving in the Danang bus station we were (for the first time really on this trip) swamped by moto taxi drivers before being 'rescued' (or so we thought) by a kind bus conductor of the bus to Hoi An which was our destination for the day. Seems he was not so kindly after all and after scamming us out of far too many Dong, we eventually arrived in Hoi An. I tried to trip him up on my exit of Bus but sadly failed. That said, it was quite intriguing seeing the contempt he showed for all the bus users throwing young folk and old ladies off the moving bus like some kind of human sized game of lemmings - one can only assume he has a miserable home life!

Hoi An is a lovely town, very pretty with pleasant piped music being played on the semi pedestrianised streets. Had a very European feel to it really, but this came with the baggage of lots of tourists which rather took the sheen off the place. It was just a day time stopover and finding the local English school was very helpful in finding a place to stow our bags for the day and they seemed genuinely pleased to help - we even got given a room to use above the local ladies fashion shop! Had a fun bit of banter in a suit shop, and bought some great paintings which was a really sweet moment - when we asked who painted these fabulous works of art the lady simply replied "my Son" - hard to say no after that! Even more so when she said a £20 painting took him around 2-3 weeks to complete. Lovely family and an honest way to make a living and was great to support them.

Another night train later, which involved me both attacking and protecting Jaryn in my sleep due to some humorous sleep mask induced confusion, we arrived in the Russian outpost of Na Trang. Quite a nice city with a fabulous beach but was rather disconcerting to see menus in Vietnamese and Russian. We decided that we needed to escape to some of the local islands for the day. Was a glorious day out with snorkelling and swimming in the sea with a hilarious guide topped off with a fabulous meal in an isolated fishing village, where we actually chose the fish we wanted and they cooked it for us. I don't think either of us has actually seen a squid before and it was kind of sad watching it accept it's fate with a last desperate squeak and squirt of ink all over itself - delicious it was tho and a great experience. An all around good day!

There was a great sense of anticipation about going to our next destination which was the mountain town of Dalat "a town dotted with French colonial villas, the Vietnamese Petit Paris" according to the guidebook (more on this later!). First tho we had to endure another bus journey. Seems the bus company decided that an appropriate bus to use for 20 passengers on a steep and windy mountain road (where we eventually gained around 1500 metes in altitude) was a ridiculously huge sleeper bus with an engine borrowed from a scooter with a knackered clutch. The journey should have been fabulous as we gained height in glorious mountain and jungle scenery, but taking 6 hours to do a 90 mile journey (often at a snails pace when there was more than a 0.5 degree incline) the novelty soon wore off. Being dumped rather unceremoniously outside the bus drivers friends hotel which was "very nice, nice breakfast, you must enjoy your stay" was greeted with the muted response it deserved by our fellow passengers. Luckily a rather charming hotelier called Thi, and her easy rider drivers Tin Tin and Mr Hung, rescued us and two French girls called Eloise and Alix and we ended up staying at her hotel. Thi was also hilarious and the way she shouted at, and occasionally hit, her selection of slightly lazy male staff was quite funny to watch, but they clearly knew who was the boss - mind you it seemed they spent most of their lives playing poker and smoking so she clearly has her work cut out there!

Turns out Dalat was just another busy, chaotic Vietnamese town so decided to escape as soon as humanly possible and had a fun afternoon climbing Lang Bian mountain (2167m) which was about the only hike in the country where you actually get a view from the top rather than just 20 foot high trees! Seems the locals like to set fire to the forest to 'protect' it which was intriguing, they also had some horses which had been painted to look like Zebra's - we figured best not to ask! On the way down we could hear some kind of dance music going on with a huge sounding crowd. Seems the small village at the foot of the mountain was the location for about 2000 school leavers to have their end of school party and we were treated to a feast of random fire dancing and singing from the Vietnamese equivalent of Tom Jones. Was good fun but we had a taxi waiting for us....or so we thought. Turns out he had given up on us as it was now dark, so some comedic interaction with a few locals we got a new taxi ordered and seems a couple of the local elders took a bit of a shine to our French friends (and in Jaryn!) and we all had a lot of fun laughing, without really knowing what each other was saying. The new taxi turned up and turns out this taxi driver fancied himself as a bit of a cheesy disco DJ and we had a great journey listening to hits such as Boys Boys Boys and Daddy Cool on the way back to Dalat. Brilliant stuff! On arrival in the town somehow the other taxi driver found us and started hurling some mild abuse in our direction - we were glad to know he cared about our well being during our mountain climb!

Seems Dalat has the least lively nightlife in Asia and only one restaurant open after 9. It did however do pizza which was good, and think we were all too knackered to care anyway. 

The next day we once again hired scooters and decided would be fun to be out in the countryside again. A planned drive to the delightful a Elephant Falls took us through the most insane set of roadworks ever, not great on the bikes but the journey was worth it. Thanks to the slightly random road signs and maps we also took in a delightful landfill site en route - was very funny when we turned the corner expecting to see a waterfall instead seeing huge piles of rubbish! Our first nightbus journey awaited later that night and a scheduled 8 hour journey or so we thought....it turned out it was actually only a 5 hour journey which ended rather abruptly at 4.30am in some god knows where corner of Saigon. At which point the tourists were all bundled off the bus whilst the locals presumably were taken to the bus station. Seems bus companies don't like tourists much around here!

We decided to just crack on and head to the Mekong Delta to a town called Vinh Long. We had a glorious boat tour around the delta and some of its islands where we ate coconut candy, drank rice wine (but not the one with the fermented snake in it!), ate like kings, had music played to us, got to wear silly Vietnamese hats and got rowed by a smiley man with no teeth. It was nice to finally relax and enjoy the sublime sights of this glorious, massive and important river. The local bar had Karaoke on this evening at ear popping volumes and seems that everyone likes to sing the same song over and over again - it kind of goes like this - la de da da, la de da de, la de da da de da de da...and repeat. I doubt I will ever get it out of my head!

Faith in Vietnam (and indeed humanity) restored we will be spending our last night in Vietnam in Saigon (with hopefully a good send off!) before flying to Siem Reap in Cambodia and to Angkor Wat - what should be one of the highlights of our trip...!